Junkyard

19/9/2020

Sunday morning. Unlucky grey clouds. Cooling tea on the low table. Erin was dealing out UNO cards when his opponent, enemy, companion for the day...whatever, addressed the elephant in the room:

"Why are your parents here?" A bewildered face, accusing downturn of the eyebrows, narrowed brown eyes – all signs that Jacen was really doing this. Right now.

Erin hated this spoiled, whiny fuckface.

"YOUR parents are in the next room, in MY vacation house! Why and what the hell?" The fuckface stabbed a finger repeatedly onto the table while Erin turned the card at the center.

A red five. Easy. Erin began as his opponent continued.

"You know I had the entire week planned with my friends! I stocked up on alcohol, food and good drugs. I bought a stereo and hired a reputable DJ. You know how much I paid for this cabin?! Two fucking hundred dollars per fucking night!" A blue card snapped down on the pile.

Erin rolled his eyes and placed a blue reverse. A second go. Two blue threes go down. Perfect.

"Hey, no, you can't do that. One cards at a time only." The fuckface didn't seem to care much for the rules anyway as he went right back to their issue. "Don't change the subject, jerk! Why did you invite your parents here? For once, I tried to play nice. I wanted YOU to come to MY party." Index finger pointing, jabbing again. His fat lips rounded on each syllable. A plus-four colour changer was flipped over with a sneer. Blue, he said.

Wow, fuckface. Erin was impressed of his attention on the game. But nothing less than what Erin expected. Four extra – red, yellow, green, green.

"You know, I can't wait to see how YOUR parents gonna react when all my friends show up." Jacen paused. "Oh wait, I know perfectly well. I can't believe I played into your hands, you fucking son of a bitch!"

"Mind your language, Jacen! Your brother's with you." A motherly voice knocked on the door.

Jacen's lips thinned. Blue skip. Yellow skips. Yellow one. "There you go, Erin. Mama's precious, innocent boy." His tone curled low. Scorning. Victorious, however. "UNO."

Erin put down a colour changer. No plus-four. No advantage. He was gonna lose no matter what colour he picked. He just knew it.

"Yeah, you know it, Errand Boy." Another colour changer landed before Erin could muster the words for a colour. "You know what's gonna happen tomorrow."

Ugh. Why did he choose to settle this over fucking UNO? A game they played often. A game Erin thought for once, just this one time, he could gain back a little pride.

"Fuck! Tea. I can't drink this." The fuckface spat and deliberately sloshed the greenish liquid over the railing. He waved at Erin. Grinned. "Your mistake. Fix it."

Erin obediently ran from the room. If only it was a sunny Sunday, just as the forecast had forecasted, then he wouldn't have to be stuck in this tiny cabin with his self-invited parents and the enemy of his life, his adopted brother.